The odyssey of a psychologist: Pioneering experiences in special education, clinical psychology, and mental hygiene with a comprehensive bibliography of the author's publications.

The professionalization of psychologists as court personnel: Consequences of the first institutional commitment law for the “feebleminded”

“…Consequently, the predominant occupation for clinical psychologists in the early 20th century was that of mental tester (Farreras, ). As a budding profession at the time, however, clinical psychologists worked under the supervision of psychiatrists, which led them to be viewed as “mere technicians,” a perception that was compounded by the fact that much mental testing was also concurrently being conducted by individuals with barely any psychological training (Wallin, , )…”

“…These individuals often just participated in a six‐week summer practicum course on its administration—probably what Judge Olson was referring to—and were without training in the field of mental deviation and pathology (Wallin, , ). Some psychologists—especially Goddard, who stood to gain financially from selling these tests and training such “Binet testers” at his institution in Vineland —claimed that all that was needed to diagnose feeble‐mindedness was the application of a Binet–Simon test, “which anybody could administer, whether trained or untrained, who could read the directions” (Wallin, , pp.…”

“…As much as Wallin encouraged cooperation of various specialties in the study of mental deviation, he rejected the medical profession's attempts to monopolize a field it was not specialized in:

Some psychiatrists did not hesitate to denounce the practicing psychologists as incompetent interlopers who were invading a field that no one had a right to enter who did not possess the M.D. as the first sine qua non …To them all psychologists were mere technicians, psychometrists, testers, or Binet testers (Wallin, , p. 83).

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“…Some psychiatrists did not hesitate to denounce the practicing psychologists as incompetent interlopers who were invading a field that no one had a right to enter who did not possess the M.D. as the first sine qua non …To them all psychologists were mere technicians, psychometrists, testers, or Binet testers (Wallin, , p. 83).…”

“…The sniping occurred largely from behind the breastworks in closed Committee or group meetings and in conversational comments. But it was not a mere battle of words (Wallin, , pp. 83–84).…”